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This is a guest post by Kenneth Liu, an intellectual property and internet law attorney with the law firm of Gammon & Grange, in McLean, VA.

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By now, if you watch basketball, know someone who watches basketball, or know what basketball is, you’ve no doubt heard of the “Linsanity” phenomenon sweeping the National Basketball Association and the world. In the space of one week, New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin went from being a fourth string bench warmer to being an international sensation. And of course, this being America, enterprising entrepreneurs have been quick to capitalize on the craze.

Just days after Lin began his streak of top scoring games, two people filed applications to register the trademark “Linsanity” with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office for use with athletic apparel.

One was filed by Andrew Slayton, an unofficial volunteer basketball coach of Lin at Palo Alto high school, who has been selling unofficial Jeremy Lin T-shirts since he created the first “Linsanity” website in July 2010--well before Lin’s sudden fame.

Michael Yenchin Chang, a California businessman, beat him to it, filing an application two days earlier, on Feb. 7. Chang told Bloomberg that he would be willing to sell the trademark to Lin, but “just wanted to be part of the excitement.”

Does Slayton or Chang have the right to trademark the term “Linsanity?”

If someone files an “Intent-to-Use” application with the Patent & Trademark Office, as Chang did, he can acquire senior trademark rights in the term once the application matures to registration. However, under trademark common law, the first person to use a term specifically to sell goods or services generally has senior trademark rights in the term. So, between Slayton and Chang, Slayton would likely have the upper hand because he was selling T-shirts from the Linsanity website long before Chang filed his application. Still, it could require some legal feuding to sort it out between them.

But wait a minute. How about Jeremy Lin? Does he have any rights to “Linsanity” himself? If a term being trademarked is associated with a living person’s name, permission from that person is required under federal trademark law. Also, if that person is well known, as is now the case with Lin, many states grant a right of publicity that may be violated by someone attempting to trade on his name without permission.

Slayton and Chang might argue that “Linsanity” is a made-up term and not Lin’s actual name, but it is obviously a reference to Lin. And while Slayton might have had a role, as a former coach, in Lin’s success, that alone would not give him the legal right to trade on Lin’s fame. Chang has even less of a claim, having no relationship to Lin and no prior use of the term.

Last month, two other enterprising entrepreneurs tried to register the trademarks “Blue Ivy Carter NYC” and “Blue Ivy Carter Glory IV” for use with clothing items and beauty products, respectively. The Patent & Trademark Office quickly rejected the applications on the ground that the trademarks would falsely suggest a connection with the famous newborn of singer Beyoncé and rap artist Jay-Z. Chances are good that the Patent & Trademark Office will also reject both Slayton’s and Chang’s attempts to trade on Lin’s fame.

Regardless of who wins the right to register “Linsanity” as a trademark, Jeremy Lin fans and sports commentators do not need to worry that they will need to stop using the term to describe the current sports craze. Owning a trademark does not mean that one has the right to stop others from using the term generically. A trademark owner only has the right to stop others from using the same term, or any confusingly similar term, to sell goods or services similar to those sold by the trademark owner.

NBA fans may remember the term “Threepeat,” which was registered as a trademark by retired L.A. Lakers coach Pat Riley’s company after the quest for three successive championships by his former team. Although Riley can stop others from selling “Threepeat” T-shirts, he cannot stop fans from using the term generically to refer to the act of winning three championships.

That should be good news for all of us who want to continue enjoying the Linsanity craze.